Hooked

Rother’s ho-hum second novel (after Naked Addiction) centers on San Diego homicide detective Ken Goode, who spends his free time surfing, and investigative reporter Katrina Chopin, who’s just returned to Southern California after a decade away. At the outset, Ken and Katrina bump into each other at a bar in La Jolla and sparks fly. Their exchange of life stories has barely begun when Ken receives a call about a nearby homicide. He rushes to the exclusive neighborhood of La Jolla Farms, where he finds the dead bodies of Victoria Fontaine and her father, Simon, a prominent plastic surgeon and the head of biotech company Vitaleron. As Ken unearths bizarre inconsistencies in the case’s physical evidence, Katrina starts reporting a story about the killings, which may have something to do with the sexual enhancement drug that Simon was developing. Attempting to suppress their chemistry as they race to solve the case, Ken and Katrina oscillate between helping and hindering each other in the search for clues. The core mystery is involving enough, but dreary pacing and lackluster prose stall the momentum. Readers will have a tough time sticking with this. Agent: Joe Veltre, Gersh Agency. (Jan.)